Tag Archives: laundry

It’s 2:38 am, and I just finished hand-wringing our clothes to dry in the bathroom. As I type, I can feel the effects of the detergent starting to dry my hands, so I better type fast. Do they make a hand softener, like they do fabric softener? Oh, I think it’s called lotion.

As we all know, when one is hand-wringing clothes to dry in the bathroom within the 2:00am–4:00am window, one’s thoughts veer toward the existential. As I twisted the water out of a pair of Thomas the Tank Engine undies to the tune of the reverberating splat of laundry water on tub, I realized that I never pictured life looking like this.

I wondered about how we got here and what’s going to happen next. We don’t intend on WonderWashing forever. Of course, laundry is not the main point here, but it’s indicative of where we are in this arc of the story. And then I thought if I could sum up where we are now in one sentence. Here’s what I came up with:

We are parents who are in a transition as Cool Dad, unemployed, continues to build his career, and Cool Mum learns how best to raise their 3-year-old and 10-month-old sons in a small apartment in New York City, one of the most expensive, competitive, and creative cities in the country.

Of course, that leaves out a lot of important details, and I could probably come up with something better during a decent hour of the day, but I think it’s a concise way to express where we are in life right now. It’s a cool exercise, too, to step back and pick what the important arcs in your story really are.

When the Wonderwash arrived, we decided to use it exclusively for 8 weeks so that it would pay for itself. Things were running quite smoothly after Week 3 when I last updated our readers.

Week 4 and Week 5 were pleasantly uneventful. I must admit though, we fell off the Wonderwash wagon big time during Week 6 and Week 7 (covering face in shame).

Week 6 was my birthday. And in my mind, I deserved a break from the Wonderwash. Instead of spending my few child-free seconds of the day cranking a handle and wringing out clothes, I decided to do something crazy. I washed my hair!

And then Cool Newbie got an upset stomach, which caused a pile of poopy PJs. And then one night, Cool Baby’s bladder let loose in his sleep. It got to the point where even if we did 5 Wonderwash loads, that pesky damp laundry would overtake every door and doorknob in the apartment.

Cool Dad did $18 worth of laundromat laundry as a birthday present to me during Week 6. Thanks, Cool Dad! And when the blowouts ended last week, I spent another $7 at the laundromat while trying to hide Cool Baby’s eyes from the violent Spanish soap operas people were watching. This week, Week 8, we were back on and hope to keep it up!

My final thoughts on the Wonderwash: It’s a water-conserving, time-saving alternative to the laundromat. I had no problems using the machine and will continue to use it.

My biggest problems came during the drying process:

1. If the bathroom window isn’t open while hang-drying, the clothes get a slight mildew smell. Yuck.
2. Sometimes the clothes feel stiff until we throw them up into the air to fluff them.
3. Even though the drying rack full of clothes can be moved out of the shower and back in again easily, it still kinda stinks to have that valuable tub/shower space taken up.
4. Big or thick items like sheets and comforters aren’t easy to dry (duh).

It’s strange to think that our two main struggles in this modest two-bedroom apartment are things that most of you don’t struggle with at all: dishes and laundry. When we left Florida, we left our gleaming white dishwasher and washer/dryer behind.

We were mildly spoiled in the Cool Duplex with its rumbling yet functional dish-washing appliance. But after moving to the Bronx, we’re back to square one.

Cool Mum will elaborate further, but we’ve fallen off the WonderWash wagon a bit. We’ve tamed the laundry beast for now, but leaky diapers mounted an offensive offensive against us over the last couple of weeks. And while dishes haven’t escalated to a fray, they are a constant time suck after every meal.

My hope is that something will change in the near future, like moving to a place with these modern cleansing marvels. Or we could replace our TV stand with a dishwasher and our bed with a washer/dryer combo and duvet on top. Then we could do our laundry and sleep in the comfort of white noise! I am totally onto something here!!

However, if it came down to just choosing one convenience, my first instinct would be the washer/dryer. Then again, sometimes it seems like we’re doing dishes all day long. Such a cruel dilemma!

If you could only have one, which would you choose: a dishwasher or a washer/dryer?